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Contents

Responsibilities

The agency is responsible for providing child welfare services. These services include protection of children from abuse and neglect, early care and education services, and juvenile justice.[2] In 2013, the agency received 60,988 abuse reports.[3]

History

When the agency was first created under Mayor John Lindsay's administration, it was known as the Bureau of Child Welfare (or BCW). In 1969, Lindsay placed it under the Human Resources Administration, and changed its name to Special Services for Children. Mayor Ed Koch later renamed it the Child Welfare Administration in the 1980s, shortly after the death of a 6-year-old in the West Village. Most recently, in 1995, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani made the agency separate of the Human Resources Administration and renamed it to the Administration for Children's Services.[3]

Growth

The agency has been expanded repeatedly, after incidents in which children were killed by their parents. In 1995, after Guiliani had previously refused to expand the agency, he created 200 new jobs in response to Elisa Izquierdo being killed by her mentally ill mother. Mayor Michael Bloomberg eliminated 169 of those jobs in 2003. However, in 2006, Bloomberg increased the size of the agency, in the wake of the murder of Nixzmary Brown by her stepfather. The death of Nixzmary was also followed by a spike in abuse reports, which greatly increased pressure on the agency.[3] In 2014, the agency saw even more expansion after three children died; Mayor Bill de Blasio hired 362 new staff members, which drastically reduced case workers' work load.[4]

Budget

For fiscal year 2014, the agency had a budget of $2.8 billion.[3] This increased by $150 million in 2015, when the agency was given a budget of $2.95 billion, out of the city's overall budget of $77 billion.[5]